View full sizeCommissioner Amanda Fritz seems determined to force all but the smallest businesses to offer paid sick leave, no matter what it might cost and what employees might have to give up as a result.Michael Lloyd/The Oregonian

The people who'd like to create a historic district in Portland's Buckman neighborhood believe that additional property-use restrictions -- the signature consequence of historic designation -- would preserve the character of their corner of the city. They could be right, but this preservation carries a steep price, which will be paid by neighborhood property owners who don't want to be saved, thank you very much.

The good intentions of preservationists notwithstanding, that's not very neighborly. Worse, the historic-designation process places property owners who prefer the status quo at a great disadvantage. It is, in a word, unfair.

The designation process is problematic in that supporters don't have to demonstrate significant community buy-in to get the bureaucratic boulder rolling. The burden, rather, belongs to people who prefer the rules that existed when they poured their money into their homes to the rules their neighbors would like to impose on them. To halt a designation, more than 50 percent of property owners in a proposed district must provide notarized letters of opposition. This is backwards, but there it is.

There are good reasons for saying "no." Designation would restrict the changes people could make to their properties' exteriors. Designation also would invite additional review, which would require additional time, uncertainty and, of course, money. The fees for historic modification review in Portland begin at $900. The price tag is so punishing that district proponents suspended their efforts temporarily last year in response to the high level of neighborhood concern.

The city has since worked to develop a more streamlined review process, according to David Skilton with the Bureau of Development Services. If adopted, it could produce lower fees. No matter how low fees get or how quick the review process becomes, though, district property owners would lose some of the autonomy they now enjoy. And for those who prize that freedom, the loss will sting.

The railroading of responsible property owners deserves far more attention than it typically receives. However, the number of people affected by each designation is relatively small. Historic designation sounds like such a good thing. And in Portland, anyway, limiting other people's freedoms and dipping into their pockets in pursuit of your ideals isn't exactly unheard of. Exhibit A is Portland Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who wants to force the owners of all but the smallest businesses to offer paid sick leave, regardless of what it might cost them and what their employees would have to give up in exchange.

There are, of course, alternatives in both instances. People are free to offer up their own properties for historic designation. That may not create the result that the Buckman preservationists want, but forcing your reluctant neighbors to behave as you wish isn't the only way to address the threat of change. Moving to a different neighborhood is another.

As for sick leave, proponents could try to persuade individual businesses to offer the benefit voluntarily. Participating businesses could promote their generosity to values-conscious customers, of which Portland is in no small supply. If sick leave is as inexpensive to offer as proponents claim, and if employees would rather have sick leave than some other benefit, then the practice should spread on its own.

Linking historic districts and Fritz's sick-leave crusade is bit of a stretch, we admit, but both matters involve a relative lack of concern for the property, investments and prerogatives of others. Most Portlanders don't own a home in the proposed Buckman historic district, and most don't own businesses that would be affected by Fritz's leave mandate. But the sort of heavy-handedness employed by Fritz and others should concern them anyway. Sooner or later, their property or autonomy could get the Fritz treatment.

Those who find this thought disturbing should stick up for the small businesses in Fritz's sights at the moment. You never know, a respect for other people's property and freedom might even trickle down to would-be neighborhood preservationists.